


Partners In Crime

by IveGotRedHair



Category: All Time Low
Genre: Coughing, High School, Sickfic, Sneezing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-10
Updated: 2015-07-10
Packaged: 2018-04-08 15:51:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,314
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4311216
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IveGotRedHair/pseuds/IveGotRedHair
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A sick Alex get send to detention where he meets Jack, what could possibly happen?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Partners In Crime

Alex coughed again, earning himself a few evil looks from his fellow students. He couldn’t help it, so he just shuffled further away from everyone and continued scribbling down notes from the board. The silence only latest a few minutes before he was sneezing, his arm pressed his face as he ran out of tissues hours ago.   
“Mr Owen? Can you do something about Alex please? He won’t stop coughing and it’s disturbing my work.”   
“Alex? Do you need to go to the nurse?” Mr Owen asked.   
“No Sir.”  
Alex hated the god damn school nurse and he was pretty sure she hated him too. He’d do anything to avoid having to sit in the freezing room why she asked him hundreds of stupid questions.   
“Are you sure?” he asked.   
“Yes Sir.”  
“Then I’m afraid I’m going to have to give you detention, no disrupting the lesson and if you won’t go to the nurse then well...”   
Alex groaned which made him cough again, the girl next to him shuffling so far to the edge of her seat he was sure she’d fall off.   
“Sorry Alex, but those are the rules.”  
Mr Owen placed the red pass on his desk, words written on his loopy hand writing that meant Alex had to spend an extra hour in that hell hole. Alex would have deliberately coughed on the girl next to him but he simply didn’t have the energy, choosing instead to close his eyes and just wait for the bell. 

Alex just about made it through the rest of the day. Having run out of tissues he was stuck using toilet paper from the bathroom which had made his nose raw, his coughing had made his chest ache which did nothing to help the pounding in his head. He just wanted to go home but that stupid girl who sat next to him in English had been so kind as to get him another hour away from his bed. He’d have to think of some revenge... But maybe when his head felt less like it’d been stuffed with cotton wool.   
At three fifteen when most the students were leaving the building Alex made his way to a room on the second floor. A room he was yet to go in... When he arrived the teacher on duty, a Mr Johnson was surprised to see him.   
“Gaskarth? What are you doing here?” he asked as Alex stumbled through the door.   
“I’ve got detention Sir,” Alex replied, his sarcasm missing its usual bite.  
“I can see that, let me see?”   
Alex handed over the red pass and let him read it.   
“It seems you do, take a seat then, anywhere you like.”  
Alex collapsed into one of the desks at the back of the room. He hoped to just get his head down and maybe sleep for an hour or so, he was lucky Mr Johnson rather liked him and let him get away with more than most. Probably the reason Alex had never seen the inside of the detention room when he maybe should have.   
He’d only just got his head on the desk when the door banged open. Looking up Alex saw another boy enter the room, dark haired expect from a blonde strip going through the middle, Alex recognised him from a few of his classes but couldn’t remember his name.   
“Back again Jack?” Mr Johnson asked.   
“I just missed you so damn much,” the boy replied.   
“What are you in for this time?”   
Jack handed him the red pass for him to read just like he’d done with Alex’s a few minutes earlier.   
“You started an argument with Mrs Pope in History?” Mr Johnson questioned.   
“What can I say? I didn’t agree with her,” Jack replied, he didn’t seem to be exactly bothered by what he’d done or the time he’d be spending in detention.   
“Take your usual seat then.”   
As Jack turned around to face the seats he finally noticed Alex sat at the back, head resting on his arms and eyes barely open.   
“Who’s the new guy?” he asked.   
“Alex Gaskarth.”  
Jack just nodded and took his seat, directly three rows in front of Alex.   
Mr Johnson and Jack continued to talk but Alex wasn’t listening, his eyes were going and he was finally drifting off when there was a loud ringing. It was only Mr Johnson’s phone but it was enough to wake Alex and sent him into a small coughing fit.   
“Shit, it seems like they need me in the Principles office. I’m not supposed to leave you guys alone but I’m going to have to. Don’t do anything to lose me my job okay?”   
“We’ll try,” Jack replied.   
Mr Johnson just looked at him like he was going to say something but decided better of it and left, leaving Jack and Alex alone.   
Alex wasn’t exactly in the mood for interacting with the other boy so just tried to get back to sleep, expect his body had other ideas. He coughed, long and hard into his arm as he body tried to get air in his lungs. Finally the fit ended and he was able to get a few sips from his bottle of water to try and calm himself. Jack didn’t even seem to notice Alex dying and that’s how Alex hoped to keep it. A few more moments of silence passed between the two boys before Alex was sneezing, his arm over his face as tried to contain his germs. Something hit him on the head but it wasn’t until the fit had ended that he saw a pack of tissue on the desk in front of him.   
“Thanks,” he said, using one of the tissues to blow his running nose.   
“What the hell are you doing here? If you don’t mind me asking.” Jack asked, having turned around to face him.   
“In detention specially or just in general?” Alex asked.   
“Both,” Jack replied.   
“Because the girl next to me in English ratted me out and the nurse hates me.”  
“Miss Clark hates you?” Jack asked.   
Alex just nodded and coughed into his hands.   
“You really shouldn’t be here, you sound like shit,” Jack said, moving up the desks so he was sitting at the one in front of Alex.   
“Thanks for the diagnoses Doc,” Alex replied.  
“My pleasure.”   
“What are you in for?” Alex asked.   
“I didn’t exactly agree with what Mrs Pope was saying so I kind of yelled at her...”   
“Probably no more than she deserved.”  
Alex’s reply earned a smile from Jack. Normally when he told people what he was in detention for they were always disappointed in him and he got enough of that from his parents, he didn’t need it from his friends too.   
“I had her last week and she was terrible... She got some of her dates wrong and when I tried to correct her she nearly had me excluded.” Alex said.  
“Shit!”   
“Yeah...”   
Alex broke off coughing, a hand covering his mouth.   
“You really do sound awful, what did you even come in for?” Jack asked.   
“Didn’t feel this bad to start with.”  
“You’re an idiot,” Jack said.   
“Pretty much.”   
Jack laughed and leant forward so his elbows were resting on Alex’s desk.   
“How come I’ve not seen you around here much?” Jack asked.   
“I only moved here a few months ago,” Alex replied.   
“Where’d you go before?”   
“Some public school up state.”  
“Oh, you’re a posh boy?” Jack teased.   
“Yeah they kicked me out for being too upper class,” Alex said, sniffling.   
“They kicked you out?” Jack laughed.   
“Why else do you think I’m here?”   
“Because you’re a stubborn idiot who can’t admit it when they’re ill?” Jack asked.   
“Hey!”   
Alex laughed but it soon turned to coughing and Jack put his hand to the boy’s back to try and help calm his breathing.   
“Thanks,” he croaked.   
“No problem. You okay? Do you need anything?” Jack asked.   
“My head’s killing; you don’t have any pain killers?”   
“I don’t, but I’m pretty sure Mr Johnson keeps some in his draw,” Jack said, getting up to search.   
“Jack, I don’t think we can...”  
“We’re already in detention, what else they going to do? Plus it’s not like he hasn’t given them to me before... Really should have thought better than coming into school hungover.”   
“Hungover, really?” Alex asked.   
“Yep... Here we go,” Jack pulled out a small box from one of the drawers in the desk and threw it across the room to Alex.   
“Thank you.”  
Alex popped a couple of the pills with a sip of his water, hoping they’d kill the thumping in his head.   
“So Alex, what bands do you like?” Jack asked, as he sat back at his desk Alex noticed he was wearing a Green Day shirt.   
“Nice shirt.”  
Jack looked down at the cover art of Dookie he was wearing and smiled.   
“Good choice, do you know Blink 182?” he asked.   
Alex shook his head and coughed into his fist, his throat was feeling raw and he didn’t know much longer his voice would hold out.   
“You don’t know Blink?” Jack exclaimed.   
“No?”   
“Then I’m going to have to teach you.”  
Jack pulled up his chair so he was opposite Alex; putting a battered iPod on the desk between them he passed Alex one of the headphones.   
“Trust me,” he said.   
Alex didn’t know what made him trust Jack; he’d only just met him and well... He was loud, hyper and typically someone Alex would have found another annoying. But as he sat there he found himself enjoying the company, Jack seemed to the only person in the whole school who actually noticed how shitty he felt and then actually cared.   
It didn’t take long after Alex placing the ear bud in that music started playing. It was fast, with a bass line that had his fingers tapping on the table. The vocals were loud and the lyrics bordering on the inappropriate, Alex could see why Jack liked it. The next hour ticked away without either of the boys noticing. They sat listening to Blink, Green Day and New Found Glory, sharing favourite tracks and albums. Alex was still sniffling and coughing but it he didn’t feel quite so awful with Jack around.   
They didn’t notice that they time had been serviced until Mr Johnson walked back into the room, nearly fifteen minutes after they should have gone.   
“Still here guys?” he asked.   
“We can go?” Jack questioned.   
“Yeah like twenty minutes ago... What have you been up to?”   
“Just listening to music,” Jack said.   
“Well get on your way and Alex, I don’t want to see you back in this building until you sleep off that cold. Are we clear?”   
“Yes Sir,” he replied.   
“Good, now get on your way.”   
As Jack and Alex left the room still chatting about bands Mr Johnson couldn’t help thinking they’d make a dangerous pair... 

Outside and the cool wind was blowing, standard November weather for Baltimore. Unfortunately for Alex the last bus had gone and with no car he had a long walk home in the cold. He’d started his walk when Jack ran to catch up with him.   
“Hey! Wait up.”  
“What?” Alex asked, sniffling as the cold was making his nose run more.   
“You’re not planning on walking in this are you?”   
“Well yeah...”   
“Come on, I’ll give you a ride,” Jack offered.   
“I live right on the other side of town, it’ll be out of your way,” Alex said.   
“I don’t care, it’s too far for you to walk, especially when you’re already ill,” Jack insisted.   
“Are you sure?”   
“Yep come on.”   
Alex followed Jack back to his care, he couldn’t lie the idea of not walking was like heaven. He’d only been outside for a few minutes and he was already shivering.   
“Thanks for this Jack.”  
“No problem.”   
At first the ride was quite, Jack having turned up the heat so Alex could finally stop shaking.   
“Do you know Rian?” Jack asked suddenly.   
“Err no? I’ve not been here that long, I don’t really know anyone,” Alex replied.   
“I was going to ask if you wanted to sit with us at lunch but that sorts it, you have to come join us.”  
“Really?”   
“Yah course! You seem really cool and I have so many more bands to teach you.”   
Alex smiled, maybe he’d found his first real friend after all.   
“Thank you.”  
Jack drove him the rest of the way back, talking about his friends Rian and Matt, Alex was quite happy to listen and laugh. Sure he’d had friends in his last school but nothing as close as Jack and friends, he hoped it have something like that one day.   
Finally they pulled up on Alex’s street and though all day Alex had just wanted to go back to bed, when he arrived he wished he hadn’t.   
“So this is it,” Alex said.   
“Nice place,” Jack said, looking out at the woods behind the large home.   
“Yeah well... You’ll have to come in sometime, I can teach you how to play Basket Case on guitar.”   
“You can do that?” Jack asked.   
“It’s simp...” Alex was cut off as he coughed again, he’d almost forgotten about being ill.   
“You should get inside, you heard My Johnson, no coming back till you’re better.”  
“Okay, well, hmm see you around Jack.”  
Alex got out of the car, so he was stood in the cold but didn’t walk away.   
“Bye Alex, it was really good to meet you,” Jack smiled.   
“You too.”  
Alex closed the door and stood on the front porch until Jack had driven away, waving his hand out of the window. Finally Alex was able to go to bed, to sleep of his stupid cold before he could go back to Jack. His new friend and partner in crime.

**Author's Note:**

> Hi guys,   
> Sorry the description for this one sucked, I spend five minutes and that's the best I could come up with!   
> I wanted to write a High School one after I read BrokenStereo13's so I hope you like it and if you haven't read hers I totally suggested it it's ace :)   
> Thank you for reading xx


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